Men, Stop Watching Sports

Some men spend a huge chunk of their lives following their favourite sports teams. Honestly, this can keep you poor and distracted because of all the time and money it takes to keep up with everything, especially for seasonal sports that happen every week.

There are some exceptions when watching sports isn’t a waste:

• World Cup final

• Champions League finals

• Big combat fight nights

• Basketball playoffs/finals

• Superbowl

• Stanley Cup finals

• Any other major sporting event

These big events can be worth watching because they’re significant, exciting, and only happen occasionally.

Another valid reason to watch sports is if you’re trying to become a professional athlete. In this case, watching sports is more like doing your homework. You’re studying the game, learning new techniques, and figuring out how to improve your own performance by watching the professionals who are performing at the highest levels.

I've never been one of those die-hard sports fans

When I was younger, I played sports at a professional level, but I've never been to a live sporting event as a fan. Sitting in the stands for 90 minutes watching someone else run around just didn't appeal to me. I preferred being the one people watched.

I'm not saying you shouldn't watch sports at all. I'm just suggesting you avoid pouring so much time, energy, focus, attention, and money into something that only gives you SHORT TERM bragging rights to other sports fans.

Think about it:

How many arguments and physical fights have you seen grown men get into over multi-millionaire football (soccer) players?

How many arguments and fights have YOU gotten into, debating about professional athletes with other people?

How many men have you seen show more passion and excitement over their team beating the rivals than they showed when their own child was born?

How many men have you seen have a bad/good day or week based on how their team performed?

People often ask me who's better, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. My answer?

‘I appreciate them both for the value they’ve brought to the world and how they’ve shown what it means to truly be a high performance individual regardless of the industry of work you are in. We should respect and admire them both because one day they will retire.’

When I say this, people look at me like 😧

This type of response catches many football (soccer) fans by surprise. They're usually hoping I'll pick a side opposite to theirs, which would lead to a never-ending debate (quite literally).

They want to argue, to defend their favourite player, and to feel validated in their choice. By not taking the bait, I sidestep the pointless arguments and focus on what truly matters: appreciating the dedication and talent of both players without getting caught up in the endless cycle of fan rivalry.

What Do You Actually Get From Watching Sports?

As a die-hard sports fan, apart from short-term bragging rights, you get NOTHING when your favourite team or player wins.

Think about it.

Yes the athletes will say "We did it for the fans" when they really just say that because it's part of their contract 😂

The athletes and the sports team don’t even acknowledge you. The real winners are the athletes and the people who own and work within the sports team. They get higher salaries, more clout, and increased social recognition.

If you're struggling in life and nowhere near your goals, your favourite sports team winning won't make you any richer or closer to your goals. Think about it.

Instead, you just have to repeat the entire cycle all over again, every single year:

- Buying new season tickets, even if your team won the league

- Buying the new design season kits

- Arguing about who's going to win

- Arguing about new players the team signed

- Arguing about new coaches and managers

- Investing time and energy to watch the game live

- Wasting hours watching the full game on TV

- Spending money on sports channels or streaming subscriptions

- Engaging in endless debates on social media and forums

- Planning your schedule around games, sacrificing personal, business and professional growth

- Following transfer rumours and speculations that rarely impact your life

- Traveling to away games, which costs even more time and money

If you like sports, I’m not saying to totally cut them out and give them up. Not at all.

What I am saying is, if you're serious about getting ahead in life and still want to watch sports...just watch the highlights.

Everything you need to know about that sporting event is in a 6-10 minute (or less) highlight video.

You’ll get a good idea of what happened without spending hours and hours on the same thing.

Again, only watch a sports event in full when:

• It’s for a major sporting event

• You’re trying to become a professional athlete, and watching sports is more like homework instead of entertainment

Time is our most valuable asset. I'm all about being smart and effective with how we use it, and this is one of those sneaky ways people waste a lot of their time without realising it, especially if they haven't yet achieved their personal goals.

Think about it: you could even make more money during this time. Let’s do the calculations:

People usually invest 10-12 hours on the day their sports event is on. The entire day is shaped around that event, especially if they are traveling to watch it live.

In the UK, the average hourly salary is around £12.50.

If someone were to get an extra weekend job working 12 hours on both Saturday and Sunday, that would result in an extra £300 a week. Here's the breakdown:

- £12.50/hour × 12 hours/day = £150/day

- £150/day × 2 days/weekend = £300/weekend

Over the course of a year, this adds up significantly:

- £300/week × 52 weeks/year = £15,600/year

This is a significant amount of extra money to make if you're young and trying to get ahead financially. But many people don't see this and instead choose to lounge around watching sports and arguing over millionaires running around a field who don’t even know they exist.

Now, let’s take it a step further. If you invest those extra earnings, you could potentially grow your wealth even more. For example, if you invested £15,600 each year with an average annual return of 5%, here's what you could be looking at over a decade:

- After 1 year: £15,600 × 1.05 = £16,380

- After 2 years: £16,380 + £15,600 = £31,980 × 1.05 = £33,579

- And so on...

Over 10 years, this could grow to a substantial amount, putting you in a much stronger financial position than if you spent those weekends on the couch.

These calculations are just based of 2 days a week, in some sports like basketball, NFL and football (soccer) the season can get really busy to a point where there is a game on every 2-3 days. so just imagine what that could add up to?

Watch the highlights and focus on YOUR goals, not the goals the athletes are scoring.

Use those extra hours to get ahead in your life. You'll thank yourself later.

Personally, I only watch the big sporting events:

• Big MMA / Boxing fight nights

• World Cup Final

• Major Olympic Games

• Champions League Final

I’ve tried to get into F1 Racing, but I can’t sit down for 2 hours to watch it, so it’s something I’ll have on in the background while I’m doing an important task.

Watching these major events gives me the excitement and enjoyment of sports without the constant time drain. 

I don't follow any weekly type of sports.

If you’re a huge sports fan, just remember that next season all of this will no longer matter. Use your time wisely if you have not yet reached your personal goals.

Watch the highlights and the big events.

You can still be passionate about your team, but don’t allow that passion to consume your life or distract you from what truly matters. 

Use all of that extra time, focus, attention, money and energy into something that actually matters.

-Till next time